Articles

CAF lifts ban on Liberia

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has given Liberia green light to play home international matches following the end of Ebola here.CAF in July last year banned the country from hosting football matches because of the Ebola outbreak, restricting local teams participating in CAF tournament to play home games outside Liberia.

The bans on Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone were imposed to stop these countries from hosting international games because of fears of spreading the Ebola Virus Disease.The virus and the ban from CAF brought a complete standstill to football and other sports in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Now that the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared Liberia Ebola-freed CAF has instructed its 54 member states that matches can again be played in Liberia.However, the WHO has advised CAF to continue to ask Sierra Leone and Guinea, still being affected by the Ebola epidemic, to play their home matches away.The Ebola virus killed at least 5,357 people in West Africa between 2014-2015, mainly in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Liberia is due to play Togo away on 13th June in the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. Clubs that represented the country in this year’s CAF Club competitions were constrained to host their home matches on neutral grounds due to the ban.

And just recently Liberia U-23 National Team had to play both legs of her 2016 Olympic qualifiers in Ghana due to the CAF ban.The Liberia Football Association has not commented on the lifting of the ban nor said when games will resume on the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Stadium and the Antoinette Tubman Stadium both currently under renovation ahead of the June encounter with Togo. Edited by Jonathan Browne